Hoping to open year on a stronger note, Ticats likely to give starters more time in Saturday pre-season game vs. Argos

One of the main reasons Scott Milanovich scheduled Sunday’s high intensity intrasquad game, with lots of unlimited body contact, was to get a leg up on the regular season.

For a plethora of reasons—one of them being, simplistically, that they’ve so often opened the year on the road against the then-tougher West (oh how things have changed!)—the Ticats have generally dug themselves into a hole in the early-season standings. The Hamilton head coach wants his team to be fully ready for the June 7 opener in Calgary and the rare pair of home games which directly follow it.

“That was why we had a live scrimmage the other day,” Milanovich said during the bone-penetrating chill of Wednesday morning’s training camp practice at McMaster. “To get more tackling, to get us more prepared for opening week.”

Two even more revealing tests, both against the neighbouring Toronto Argonauts, are on the near horizon before the regular season begins in Alberta; this Saturday (7 p.m. at Hamilton Stadium) and Friday May 30 (7 p.m. at University of Guelph).

With few –read: basically zero, barring injuries—positions truly up for grabs on the starting offence but a handful still relatively open for defensive starters, those two pre-season games are important for selecting the overall roster, particularly for special teams and especially at returner where there are four or five contenders.

As the defence still sorts out its personnel and the D’s veterans new to the Cats learn to mesh with each other, the offence has to be able to put up as many points as possible early on in the regular season. Those considerations, plus the numerous small but nagging injuries that are affecting things like offensive line depth, all factor into how much the coaching staff plays its “ones” (meaning potential starters) this weekend and next.

“I understand in practice where some of these guys are competing against guys that maybe are not CFL-calibre starters,” Milanovich says.  “So, there’s a lot, really, that goes into the evaluation process this time of year.

“Hopefully we can get our guys that we think are going to start, a lot of playing time. The guys that are in the battles for starting positions, they’re going to get a lot of playing time regardless. Hopefully we can stay healthy enough for these two pre-season games to get a great look at everybody.”

Milanovich was asked what percentage of the starting lineups has been set, or close to set.

“There’s still a number of possibilities available,” he replied. “Probably more so defensively than offensively. In terms of practice roster—guys that we want to keep around, to see more of, who would be the next guys up—that’s really up for debate at this point and that’s what the next week and a half is going to determine.”

Last year the Ticats used their potential starters for nearly half of the opening exhibition game and tapered off for the second pre-season match; leaving enough time to stay sharp for the first game of the regular season while still saving space to gauge the remaining battles for starting jobs, and spots on special teams and the practice roster.

My guess is that the starters will likely go deeper this year against the Argos Saturday at home, perhaps as long as three quarters for many of them, especially on offence. The following weekend, it’d likely be a quarter or just a bit more.

With two of their first three games at home for the first time in six years—they won all three to open the magical regular season of 2019—this is a golden opportunity for the Cats to re-establish the home field advantage which they’ve so often wielded like a carving knife since the new stadium opened in 2014.

But they were 3-6 at the corner of Melrose and Cannon last season and a lowly 3-6 the year before and didn’t earn a home playoff game either year. And that has to change. Winning Game 1 in Calgary would set up a positive mindset and fuel momentum for the subsequent difficult home games against Saskatchewan and Montréal. So the offence has to be almost in mid-season form while the defence progresses from the new into the familiar.

Powell in a groove again

After scuffling a bit late last week and during the first half of  Sunday’s Black and Gold scrimmage, No. 2 quarterback Taylor Powell has looked laser-sharp. He rebounded with a strong second half in the scrimmage and in Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s return to practice he’s been precise and confident in his time under centre, much of it while directing the backup offence. One deep toss over the middle to Odieu Hiliare—who’s also been impressive—was right out of a How-To manual.

“I had a conversation with him two days ago,” Milanovich said Wednesday morning. “He looks at himself as a starter… as he should. When he played (nine starts) in ’23, he earned that right. And it’s hard when you feel like you’re a starter and you’re not getting reps with the ones. You know what you’re capable of, you can start getting in bad habits.

“The thing with Taylor is he’s just got to do his job. That’s what we talked about. It’s like you can’t worry that you’re with guys that have zero experience in this offense. They’re going to make mistakes and what you’ve got to do is not make it worse.

“I thought he had a great practice yesterday. I think we got him really locked back in. It’s a hard job; being a backup quarterback is tough because you don’t get the reps with the ones. Sometimes we can’t even run plays that the ones are running because the new guys aren’t ready for that much detail. So, it’s frustrating for those guys, but he’s the kind of guy you want there because he’s so mentally strong. He works so hard without reps with the ones, that if he needed to go in, he’d go in and do a good job.”

Staying in his lane

Earlier this week Bo Levi Mitchell was asked if, with a dozen years of CFL experience under his belt, he ever makes suggestions to head coach, Scott Milanovich, who’s also the offensive co-ordinator, on which receivers look good or who should get more play calls.

Mitchell is often like a second coach on the practice field but he deferred to his boss on this one.

“Honestly, I couldn’t even pick between them all,” Mitchell replied. “I mean, I think we have so many guys that should be starters anywhere, and I’m just blessed to have them on our side.

“I give Scott my opinions, but Scott’s not asking me for advice on who should start at receiver, right? He’s been in the game a long time. He’s got multiple PhDs in this game. We’ve got personnel guys who do that.”

Augustine feeling at home

Canadian running back Johnny Augustine played behind current CFL Most Outstanding Player Brady Oliveira—and before that Andrew Harris—in Winnipeg and is now playing behind Greg Bell, who took over the starting Hamilton job in the second half of last season.

But Augustine is an important part of the offence because when the Ticats are looking  to maximize their use of American receivers, they will turn to him as the running back. He’s got a commendable 5.7 yards-per-carry average over his six CFL seasons and can also catch the ball.

Augustine got a lot of action in Sunday’s Black and Gold game and acquitted himself well.

A native of Welland, who played university ball at Guelph but was undrafted, he simply worked his way onto important roles on the Bombers’ championship teams and is a physical fitness devotee.

Much of the winter he’d work out in the Ticats clubhouse gym with his future new teammates and he says that has helped him dring the first week-plus of training camp.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Just being able to have that perk of being nearby (Niagara Peninsula), getting a sense of the facility.

“And some of the guys were already here in the winter. It’s a good welcoming because in training camp, you come Day One, it could be a little overwhelming. You see a lot of that with the rookies. But being here early on, training with Coach (Marcellus) Bowman, it was great for me personally. So that way it’s like I know what to expect. And, it’s been good so far.”

CATS CLAUSES: Bo Levi Mitchell launched a perfect 45-yard bomb right up the gut to a streaking Tim White during team drills Wednesday … returning linebacker Ray Wilborn made another diving interception today after playing very well in the intrasquad scrimmage … starting punter Nik Constantinou, Global draft Josh Green, free agent Canadian Eric Maximuik and place kicker Marc Liegghio (who also backs up Constantinou) have all been lofting punts with some very serious hang time … Scott Milanovich was hoping for rain Wednesday so his staff could study their players under late-season conditions but only got damp cold as the rain started after practice ended. But showers are forecast again for Thursday … fifth-year long snapper Gordon Whyte is unselfish with his time and works with other players who wish to learn the specialized position. Linebacker Trevor Hoyte is being tutored before practice by Whyte on the nuances of long snapping. He’s already an important special teams player with 38 tackles on specials over the last two seasons in Toronto and Hamilton …  the Ticats have signed RB Khalan Griffin who played at Rice and Lamar.